“A PEEK AT A VERY HELPFUL SNEAK”

LUKE 16:1-13

16:1  Jesus told his disciples: "There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions.

2  So he called him in and asked him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.'

3  "The manager said to himself, 'What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg--

4  I know what I'll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.'

5  "So he called in each one of his master's debtors. He asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'

6  "'Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,' he replied. "The manager told him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.'

7  "Then he asked the second, 'And how much do you owe?' "'A thousand bushels of wheat,' he replied. "He told him, 'Take your bill and make it eight hundred.'

8  "The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.

Life is full of problems and some of them are harder to solve than others.  In fact, you may be dealing with one of those seemingly unsolvable problems right now. If you are then I’ve got some good news for you.  The answer to your problem is waiting for you in the Parable of the Dishonest Steward.  

Now you may find that hard to believe.  After all the Parable of the Dishonest Steward is one of the most perplexing parables in the gospels.  It’s a parable that can leave you scratching your head a little. Minnie Pearl used to tell a story that describes the way a lot of people feel after reading the Parable of the Dishonest Steward.  It seems there were these two hillbillies who lived all their lives up in the mountains of Tennessee.  One day they came down to the town at the foot of their mountain and as they were walking down the street they saw a priest with his arm in a sling.  One of the hillbillies hollered, “Hey preacher, what happened to your arm?” “Oh,” the priest said. “I slipped and fell in the bathtub.”  The hillbillies nodded their heads and went on their way.  A little while later the first hillbilly turned to the other one and said, “By the way, what is a bathtub anyway?”  The other hillbilly shrugged his shoulders and said  “How should I know.  I ain’t Catholic.”

The Parable of the Dishonest Steward can leave you feeling a little baffled and befuddled.  After all it looks like Jesus is telling us it’s okay to be dishonest.  It’s okay to be a little devious. It’s okay to be deceitful. Yes, the parable is a difficult one to decipher, but it would be a mistake to simply dismiss the Parable of the Dishonest Steward.  That’s because this is a parable that can help you when you’re dealing with a seemingly unsolvable problem.  So, let’s go back and take another look at what the dishonest steward did.

Now before you can understand the parable there are a couple of things that you need to know.  First of all, you need to understand that in those days when doing business it was very common to charge someone excessive and exorbitant interest. 100% to 150% interest wasn’t uncommon.   The second thing that you need to know is that in God’s eyes that kind of interest was sinful. Consider if you will the words of the psalmist.  “O LORD who shall dwell on your holy hill?  He who does not put his money out at interest.  He who walks blamelessly and does what is right.” (Psalm 15) 

So with that in mind let’s take another look at the Parable of the Dishonest Steward.  It all starts when the dishonest steward finds out that he is going to be fired.  Faced with that harsh reality he sits down and begins to weigh his options.  He quickly realizes that he isn’t strong enough to do manual labor and he’s too proud to beg.  So, things are looking pretty bleak for the dishonest steward until he suddenly realizes that the way out of his dilemma is to simply do what God wants him to do.  So what does he do? He calls his master’s first debtor in and cuts his bill in half.  Then he calls the second debtor in and takes 20% off of his bill.  In doing that all the dishonest steward is doing is getting rid of all the sinful interest.  The dishonest steward is dishonest because he did that behind his master’s back.  It’s important to remember though.  He was simply doing what God wanted him to do and because he did what God wanted him to do everyone ends up happy.  The rich man’s debtors are happy because they don’t have to pay all that sinful interest.  The dishonest steward is happy now he now has some friends who might be able to help him when he needs that new job. Even the rich man has to commend the dishonest steward for being so shrewd.  I mean what was the rich man going to do?  Have the dishonest steward arrested for doing what God wanted him to do?  For following God’s commandments?

The dishonest steward discovered that there’s a big different between conventional wisdom and God’s wisdom.  Conventional wisdom usually doesn’t help you when it comes to those seemingly unsolvable problems.  God’s wisdom, on the other hand, can help you. 

Just ask Glen Davis.   He’s the homeless man in Boston who found that backpack with $42,000 in cash and traveler’s checks in it.  Did you hear about that? It’s been all of the news this past week.  Glen Davis has been homeless since he lost his job five years ago.   When he found that backpack he could have kept some of the money for himself; maybe a couple hundred dollars. After all life has been all that kind to him.  Besides someone with a backpack with $42,000 in it isn’t going to miss a couple hundred dollar.  You could even say the $200 was his reward for returning the backpack.  The thought never entered his mind though. In an interview Glen Davis said, “Even if I were desperate for money, I would not have kept even a ... penny of the money I found. I am extremely religious — God has always very well looked after me.”  So, Glen Davis did what God wanted him to do and he returned the backpack and all that money to its rightful owner.  He followed God’s wisdom and now there’s an online fund that’s been set up to help him.  To date the fund has received over $85,000 in donations. 

When you’re faced with a seemingly unsolvable problem don’t do what conventional wisdom tells you do. Do what God’s wisdom tells you to do.  Here’s another example for you.  It’s a bit of God’s wisdom that might be of value the next time you find yourself working your way through a pile of bills.  

In his book Maverick Ricardo Semler shares a lesson that he learned at a company meeting many years ago.  Ricardo Semler is a Brazilian businessman who has a reputation for being a little unorthodox when it comes to running his business.  For the past 25 years Ricardo Semler has let his employees set their own hours and wages and even choose who their bosses are going to be.  The result has been increased productivity, long-term loyalty and phenomenal growth for his company.  In his book he talks about a company meeting where there was a request to spend $50,000 for new filing cabinets.  Instead of approving the $50,000 though they decided to hold the First Biannual Semco File Inspection and Clean-out Day.  The plan was simple.  Everyone was instructed to go through every folder in every cabinet and throw away every nonessential piece of paper.  When Ricardo Semler did that he discovered that he was one of the company’s biggest file hogs.  He already had four large filing cabinets with a request  for two more.  After he cleaned everything out he discovered that he only needed one filing cabinet.  Everyone else discovered the same thing.  By the time they were finished instead of spending money the company made money by auctioning off dozens of unneeded filing cabinets.

Conventional wisdom says I need to make more money so I can pay my bills.  God’s wisdom says maybe I’d be a lot happier if I had fewer things in my life. God’s wisdom says, I don’t need that $500 handbag.  That $50 handbag from Macy’s will do just fine.  I don’t need that $300 pair of sunglasses.  Those $15 sunglasses from Wal Mart will do just fine.

Here’s one last example for you.  I think you’ll all agree that there’s a lot of negativity out there these days.  People are always complaining and criticizing each other.  Conventional wisdom says you have to do that so you can climb the ladder of success and get ahead. God’s wisdom, on the other hand, says that instead of knocking each other down the best thing you can do is build each other up.  So, instead of accentuating the negative you accentuate the positive.  That’s what the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s sixth grade teacher did.  In an article that appeared many years ago in the New Yorker magazine he remembered the first day of school with his sixth grade teacher.  Her name was Miz Shelton.  Rev. Jackson remembered that Miz Shelton began writing these long words on the blackboard that they’d never even heard of before.  “We all looked around and started whispering to each other, ‘She’s got the wrong class.  She thinks we’re the eighth-grade class.’  Finally someone called out, ‘Miz Shelton?  Those are eighth grade-words.  We’re only the sixth grade here.’   Miz Shelton turned around and said very sternly, ‘I know what grade you are.  I work here.  And you’ll learn every one of these words, and a lot more like them, before this year is over.  I will not teach down to you.  One of you…just might be mayor or governor, or even president, some day, and I’m gonna make sure you’ll be ready.’” 

It doesn’t matter what the problem is that you’re facing. It could be a neighbor who’s got you a little out of sorts.  It could be a lot of stress from too much to do and too little time to do it.  It could be a marital problem or a money problem.  Whatever it is, just remember that good things happen when you stop using conventional wisdom and start using God’s wisdom to solve your problems.  It worked for the dishonest steward and it can work for you too.  Amen.

Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes

September 22, 2013